Normally we play without deciphering the score, giving importance, or not, to certain points more than others, but what are the guidelines to score in different situations? Depending on how the score is going, your Action Mode should vary. Within that variety, there are things of course that you must maintain throughout the game such as playing point by point, intensity, concentration, etc. But let’s see how it works in different situations in which you will find yourself continuously:
Reading the score point by point
- First point of the game – Win it: Activate early from the start of the game. Confidence is key to generating better performance of your shots. Winning the first point gives you that extra breath that releases you and you dare to use most of your arsenal of weapons.
- Pre-Advantage: it is a point where most do not realize the importance of the moment and fall asleep. It is a point where, if you maximize performance, it gives you more chances of advantage and thus more chances of winning. The players are usually concentrated and at high intensity in the advantages because they are of great importance to winning games, sets, or matches. But in the pre-Advantages, they are not usually activated the same. So try to get active and give it your all when you find a PRE-ADVANTAGE and then take advantage of the advantage opportunities it can bring you.
- Deuce – Key Word: Work: You must work the point, play with margins and wait for the opportunity to put pressure. You must manage with patience and choose your shots well.
- Advantage – Keyword: Decision: Play with confidence! Take initiative. Use your weapon moves and be blunt.
- 40: 0, 40:15, 0:40, 15:40 – Play Daring: Always with the idea of focus and control. Let go for it and play point by point.
Play point by point
Although we define some moments of the scoreboard, tennis has a reality that we cannot forget: the moment we stop winning points, we begin to lose them. There is no time limit or other thing to stop the progress of the game. Play continues until one of the players is victorious.
There is another aspect that can also affect the scoreboard and that is the mental PRISM with which the same player can see certain situations. The very rules of how to play with certain scores can become prejudices for the player, which can influence his performance at this time. For example, if a player is sure that winning the first point makes him win the game, then by losing it he can lose a lot of confidence. For this reason we have the possibility of reading certain performances of our opponents in certain moments but we must do it without creating prejudices on them for our best performance.
And here, playing one point at a time or being at the point that we play, can be our best weapon when facing the game. With this we will maximize our performance and we will be less predictable for our opponents in certain situations.
